CUnet Enhances Compliance Monitoring to Protect Veterans, Service Members and Their Families Against Misleading Marketing Practices

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In support of a recent Presidential Executive Order, CUnet will automatically monitor third party affiliate websites for aggressive recruiting practices.

Paramus, NJ (PRWEB)May 29, 2012

CUnet today announced its support of President Obama’s initiative to ensure veterans and their families have credible information to make the best education decisions for their careers. With CUnet’s enhanced compliance process, all known third-party affiliate URLs will automatically be monitored for language that targets members of the military, flagged when issues are identified, and manually reviewed to help ensure that all CUnet clients and affiliate partners meet the conditions set out by a recent Executive Order signed by the President.

“The schools we work with are committed to serving our service members and veterans, helping to advance their careers through education,” said Todd Eicher, President of CUnet. “With our new compliance monitoring services, we are helping to ensure that those members of the military have the information they need to make the right choices for their education, while protecting both the students and the schools that serve them.”

The newly-added terms will automatically be monitored at no extra cost to all CUnet clients during periodic reviews by CUnet’s Marketing Operations Quality Control (MOQC) team. For school clients looking for more comprehensive monitoring coverage, CUnet offers Enforce, a premium, fully-managed compliance monitoring service. With Enforce in place, CUnet will monitor all known URLs from third party affiliates on a daily basis, flag any changes for immediate manual review, and ensure that proactive steps are taken to search and monitor the internet for any additional brand references or potential violations outside known affiliate URLs. Additionally, the MOQC team reviews and approves all advertising copy for Enforce clients, provides regularly scheduled audits and reports, and ensures that any compliance violations are identified and resolved quickly and appropriately.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve made significant investments in compliance, building a dedicated compliance team, developing monitoring technology on our Sparkroom platform, and creating a series of processes and compliance guidelines based on best practices,” said Eicher. “With today’s announcement, we are furthering our commitment to the highest levels of compliance, protecting both our school clients and the students they serve.”

To meet the requirements of the Executive Order and provide an additional layer of protection for all clients, CUnet has implemented the following steps:

Automated Monitoring: All affiliate homepage URLs will automatically be crawled using Sparkroom Monitor, CUnet’s compliance monitoring software. Use of concerning language or military-specific terms will be flagged and forwarded to the MOQC team for review. While all clients will receive periodic reviews of the flagged terms, Enforce clients will benefit from constant monitoring and daily reviews by the MOQC team.

MOQC Review and Remediation: The MOQC team will periodically review any site containing questionable terms and forward any potential inconsistencies with the Executive Order to the client to determine if steps should be taken to resolve the issue.

Update Client Insertion Orders: Current and future client Insertion Orders will be updated to include the addition of keywords targeting veterans and military personnel, such as “GI Bill” or “veteran.” These keywords will be flagged and reviewed with each periodic audit.

Client Feedback: CUnet’s client service managers will meet with school clients to better understand how they are being impacted by the Executive Order. This will inform CUnet of any process changes they may be making, ensuring the necessary compliance documents are updated to incorporate those process changes and reflect the current regulations.

As a leader in compliance, CUnet has built a dedicated team based out of Lincoln, Neb., to address regulatory concerns in higher education recruitment. With Sparkroom Monitor, CUnet’s proprietary compliance monitoring tool built on the industry’s most deployed enrollment marketing platform, the MOQC team uses proven processes to monitor client and affiliate sites, track and resolve potential violations, and continually identify new sites to be monitored. To learn more about CUnet’s compliance monitoring services, contact us at sales(at)cunet(dot)com.

About CUnet
CUnet delivers industry-leading technology, media and marketing services to higher education institutions to help recruit and enroll students. Driven by a commitment to technology leadership, compliance, and exceptional customer service, CUnet’s higher education experts partner with schools to improve marketing performance and deliver qualified inquiries that meet enrollment and retention goals. CUnet is dedicated to providing the highest standards of transparency and compliance while promoting ethical marketing practices in postsecondary education. Headquartered in Paramus, N.J., CUnet is a subsidiary of Nelnet (NYSE: NNI), a leader in education planning and financing for more than 30 years. For more information, visit http://www.cunet.com.